From FG-return TDs to onside returns, how Bears specialists benefitted

By Patrick Finley

Bears receiver Deonte Thompson returned a field goal try for a touchdown Saturday. (AP)

GLENDALE, Ariz. — The only person bearing down on Deonte Thompson was a former teammate.

As he fielded Phil Dawson’s short 63-yard field-goal attempt to end the first half Saturday, Aaron Brewer, the Bears’ old long snapper, was sprinting in, unblocked.

Thompson juked at the 6, Brewer reached out, and Thompson escaped his arm tackle. He broke down the left sideline, where the Bears had a wall of players waiting — cornerback Marcus Cooper and safety Adrian Amos made solid blocks.

Thompson wasn’t touched again for 77 yards — and that was on a weak attempt by Dawson — before finishing his 109-yard return in the opposite end zone.

He joked later that he was tired; he hadn’t run that far in a while.

“It wasn’t anything we were surprised about,” said linebacker Jerrell Freeman, who lined up 20 yards in front of Thompson. “When it works, it’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s what it’s supposed to be.’ ”

Not everything worked so well for the Bears’ special teams in the 24-23 victory against the Cardinals. But the game had amazing value in that regard — the Bears’ specialists went through game situations they might see only a few times all year.

Or, in the case of Thompson’s return, once a decade.

“We watch it on film,” said kicker Roberto Aguayo, who missed a 49-yard field goal low and far right. “You don’t think it’s going to happen to you because it’s a once-in-a-five-, 10-year play. But they’re gonna happen. Good thing for it to happen in the preseason — to get that work in and to scheme it up better.”

Incumbent kicker Connor Barth made a 42-yard field goal and two extra points and kicked off once. Aguayo, signed a week earlier, kicked three touchbacks and made an extra point but missed the field-goal try.

“I jumped on it a little bit,” he said. “Obviously, you want to make them, but I got a little bit too quick and didn’t hit it well.”

The Bears saw two onside kicks, too — and recovered only one.

Wide receiver Daniel Braverman slid and muffed a squibber at the 35-yard line, giving the Cardinals the ball back with 1:20 to play. After they scored and missed the two-point conversion with nine seconds left, Braverman recovered the other onside kick to ice the game.

Follow me on Twitter @patrickfinley.

Email: pfinley@suntimes.com